Upheaval Read online

  My ability menu appears with both the icons and the short description of the abilities. I review the descriptions of each ability and notice that the blue trait is flashing. I am careful not to inspect the abilities too much, remembering what happened when I selected Energy Beam. I do not want to accidentally waste this upgrade.

  In Energy Beam it is the electromagnetic trait that is flashing, while in Hardy it is the list of items that are tempered. Upgrading Energy Beam might broaden what I can shoot or what I am resistant to since it is linked. If I upgrade Hardy, then I might temper more of my body becoming more resilient. The pain of my crushed in face and tender arm still throbs and I really want to increase my survivability. I want to temper my body as much as possible. I opt for survivability and click to upgrade Hardy. There is a bright flash as the description for Hardy changes. I pull up the new description.

  Hardy (Passive): Your skin, ligaments, tendons, muscles, and bones temper and are more resilient. In addition 0 units of force and 1 unit of electromagnetic energy of every impact is redirected into your personal aether.

  Sweet, my bones will temper now. I am happy for only a few seconds before the pain of tempering comes back as I feel like I am being stabbed across my entire body at once. Pain shoots through me as my arm and face grind themselves back into place. The stabbing pain only gets worse after the grinding ends. And the itching, my entire body itches all at once. I just about pass out again, the only thing that saves me is living through all the pain of my previous trials. Even so, mentally this pain is a little easier because this is exactly what I want, more resilient bones. Now I will not have to worry about my ribs cracking with a hit or my skull being crushed. My bludgeoning resistance is increasing. I will be able to take more hits. I will be able to fall large distances. When the pain finally subsides my arm no longer feels tender and my face feels solid again. The pain is slightly there, but nothing like before. More of a throbbing reminder of a time when I was weaker.

  I pull up my interface one more time and look in the upper left. There are no more icons. So, I exit out of my interface and explore my room a bit more. In front of me is an endless white void. Behind me is a brick wall with a door and a black panel. That was a quick exploration.

  I walk over to the black panel and a circle with two icons appears. There is a gavel in one icon and the front view of a Spartan helmet in the other. I press the gavel with my hand and the circle disappears and a message appears and a 3D display pops out of the surface.

  Welcome to the Auction House.

  The auction house, a classic trope in any game, I was already well aware of how these worked. Other players would find or acquire items and sell them to the highest bidder.

  I am personally obsessed with my survivability so I quickly adjust the display to produce a list of armor. I am amazed that the alien interface could seem so natural. I do not have to root around pecking to find what I want. What I am looking for seems to be ready for me to click or scroll through.

  When I review the armor pieces, there seems to be bonuses to wearing sets instead of piecemeal sets. I try to buyout the gambeson to set which would grant me increased damage absorption, but all I get is a message that I do not have enough credits. I look to the top right and I see a zero. That’s right I haven’t done anything yet, why would I have any credits. Items in the auction house are expensive, ranging from five to fifty thousand credits. I do not know how prevalent credits are in this new world, but I have zero of them. I suppose I will have to go out into the world, slay monsters, or win some of these Gate Wars to earn some money. I exit the auction house and the circle reappears. I click on the Spartan helmet and a new message appears.

  Welcome to the Honor Exchange.

  Three hundred twenty-five appears in the upper right-hand corner of this screen, telling me I have that many honor points from my earlier achievements. This is more like it; I actually have currency to spend. I check on what I can purchase. The honor exchange is a lot more limited than the auction house. There is a three by four grid of items with prices and no descriptions.

  Experience Potion I - 125 honor points

  Array Unlock Scroll - 300 honor points

  Scale Armor Chest Piece - 1575 honor points

  Energy Blaster - 250 honor points

  Folding Shield - 300 honor points

  Red sigil x 15 - 1125 honor points

  Credits x 500 - 100 honor points

  Everlasting Water Bottle - 65 honor points

  Kinetic Dagger - 250 honor points

  Green sigil x 25 - 750 honor points

  Credits x 2500 - 480 honor points

  Dimensional Satchel - 5050 honor points

  Time to Replenishment 18:47:21

  Force Replenishment 100 honor points

  I think about purchasing some credits, but everything in the auction house that I wanted costs way more than 500 credits. If I buy the credits, who there is no telling how long before I begin to reap benefits from my purchase. I think that I will benefit more by buying a finished item that I can use now. One that will help me survive. I figure that unless I have something specific, I want to buy hoarding credits is a bad thing. It doesn't matter how many credits I have in my bank account if I can't survive my first fight. Since survivability is the name of my game, I purchase the folding shield.

  You have obtained Folding Shield. It has been stored in your inventory.

  How do I access my inventory? I start to poke around in my interface, but do not see any way to open an inventory screen. I find a question mark on one of the sub menus after randomly clicking icons. So much for intuitive design. I think the question mark might be the help menu, so I click it.

  A search bar appears, but no key board. I start to wonder how to type into the search bar when "How do I type into the search bar" appears in the search bar. I think about deleting it and it does, then I think "inventory" and mentally hit enter. An entry pops up.

  Inventory - All races adapted to Ulterian Mana have inventories. The inventory is a gift from the interface. It is an extra-dimensional space where you may store items. The size of your inventory right now is 0.5 meters by 0.5 meters by 0.5 meters. Items smaller than this may be stored in your inventory until capacity is reached. The mass of the objects stored is not displaced while in your inventory. The mass of the items stored in your inventory will create a pressure on the competitor's body effectively slowing you down. The size of your inventory can be modified and enhanced by Dimensional items. There is a general balance between the items stored in your inventory and how much you are willing to slow down. To access items in your inventory, reach out your hand and think of the item you wish to retrieve. If the item is stored, it will appear in 1 to 5 seconds.

  It is wonderful that this Ulterian interface has a help section. I will have to remember the help menu when I want to know more information about what my world has become. But right now, I want to get my shield. I hold out my hand and think, "Folding Shield." Three seconds later an armband the length of my forearm appears in my hand. I hold the item for a few seconds concentrating on it and a notification appears.

  Folding Shield: Durability 100/100 Hardness 10. A shield that folds in on itself enabling the bearer to hide the shield as a simple armband.

  I put the armband on and think about activating the shield. Nothing happens. I flick my arm and wrist to try to shake the shield loose, maybe it is stuck. There is a click and a whirl. A round shield extending six inches past my hand and elbow unfolds from the armband. The shield is large, but lightweight. My arm can still move freely. The jury is still out if I will be able to hold my arm and shield up in battle for long periods of time, but it is looking good. The shield is broad enough that I can hunker down behind it and expose only small bits of my body. This was an excellent purchase; it will definitely increase my survivability. I exit the Honor Exchange and the circle reappears. There are still only two icons on the display. The only thing left in my Whitespace is the door, so I grab the handle and receive a notification.

  To exit the Whitespace step through the portal.

  I open the door and a swirling purple portal appears in the entry way. I step through the doorway and feel a tugging right above my belly button.

  To begin a Gate War travel to the nearest Gate. The closest Gate is located in the city of Denver in Capitol Hill. Enter the gates, battle across the galaxy, fight, win, conquer.

  The tugging on my belly continues and I slowly wake up in my chair. My head is swimming and I am slightly dizzy, but I am safe and in my house. My wife is already awake and at the breakfast table eating a cheese stick. She smiles at me, "Good morning sleepy head, how was your tutorial?"

  "Rachel, this isn't a dream, is it? This is our new life? The world won't be the same anymore."

  "I'm afraid so, but at least we are superheroes now," she says holding up her hand. It starts to glow green and she smiles.

  "Whoa, Hun! What is your ability?"

  "I can heal people, Will. I can rejuvenate tissue and muscle. If I had this power when I was in that car accident with my Mom, we would have both made it through," Rachel whispers slightly haunted by the memory of her mother. We both take a few seconds of silent mourning for her mom. She was a stand-up lady. "What can you do?"

  "Can you do anything else?" She shakes her head no. Seems like our experiences were slightly different in the tutorial. "Are you sure, what level are you?"

  "I'm level one, should I be higher?"

  "I'm level two." I point my hand at my other hand and charge up Energy Beam to level one and fire it at my other palm. Hardy redirects the unit of energy into my personal aether and I can feel something inside my start to fill up. The level one beam only puts out 1 unit of energy and Hardy is able to redirect it all, so I remain unharmed. The Energy Beam doesn't even hurt, just a slight pressure on my hand. "I have two abilities. My Energy Beam can really dish out some punishment. Plus, I am super resilient and can take a beating. Plus, the Arrays modification allows me to redirect energy fired at me and supercharge my Energy Beam."

  "Two abilities and Arrays, not fair!” Rachel exclaims, throwing down her cheese stick. “So, you get ability points at level two?"

  "Just one ability point, when I leveled up in the tutorial, I got just one ability point and when I got my second ability I unlocked Arrays. Arrays let you combine your abilities to gain additional effects for your abilities. For me I can redirect energy damage and use that redirected energy to super charge my beams."

  "I want to level up," my wife replies jealousy evident in her voice.

  "When I completed my challenge, I got a loot chest with an experience potion and some sigils."

  "There were only 10 blue sigils in my loot chest," Rachel complains. "Why did you get so much more than I did?"

  "I don't know what percentage did you get in your challenge?"

  "28% There was too much damage coming in for me to heal it all."

  "There you go, I got 86%. The loot in our chests probably comes from how well we did in our challenges."

  My wife crossed her arms and pouted. I could tell she understood, but didn't think it was fair. She was still pouting when I decide to surprise her and summon my folding shield. I reach my hand out and concentrate. My shield appears and my wife visibly jumps. I put the shield on and flick my arm to unfold it.

  Her eyes widen, "How did you do that? What is that?"

  "It is my folding shield. It will greatly improve my ability to fight, I think. I purchased it with my honor points."

  "I saw that honor exchange, but I didn't have enough honor points for what I wanted, so I am saving mine up," she says.

  I smile at her wide eyes knowing how jealous she is. "Did you find the help section in the interface?" She shakes her head no. I explain where it is and she whistles. I can tell she is following along with the steps to access it in her interface.

  "This is useful information. I wonder how many people will never explore the interface and never know this exists. This is a definite advantage. We will have to study the entries to take full advantage of this," Rachel says.

  "Where do you want to go now? Cap Hill for the Gate?” I ask. “If we are going to advance, we need to fight in these Gate Wars."

  "I agree, let's pack up some food and our camping supplies and head over. It will probably take us a good hour, hour and a half to get there now that we can't drive."

  "What do you mean we can't drive?" I ask.

  "You know how our phones went dead? Well, it isn't only our phones everything with electronics isn't working. The thermostat, the microwave, and yes, even the car. I had some time to check things out while you were still in the tutorial," she explains.

  We go digging through our closest and start to accumulate our supplies in the living room. Backpacks, sleeping bags, sleeping pads, pillows, our personal tents, our canteens, my Leatherman, a fire striker, a hatchet, toiletries, and some extra clothes all make it into the pile. We pack our trail ready snacks and some water. My wife and I really liked to hike in the mountains during the Spring and Summer and now our hobby was paying off.

  While packing, I decide to experiment a little with my inventory. I use my energy beam to start water boiling and then pour it into two different cups. I placed one cup in my personal inventory and left one outside. Twenty minutes later the water in my personal inventory was still steaming hot, while the one outside was merely warm. Either the personal inventory is a great insulator, or it dilates time. My experiment is a success, my inventory will keep hot things hot and cold things cold. I take all the ice from our freezer and dump it into my personal inventory. Ice water will be refreshing on the trail and I might be able to sell ice later after everyone realizes how awesome a nice cool drink is.

  I tell Rachel about the time properties of our personal inventory and we both think that food might not spoil in our inventory. We raid our fridge and freezer for meat and produce. We pack our clothes and bedrolls in our backpacks before we head out the front door. I do not know why, but we take the time to get the mail and lock the door. This might be the last time we are at our house, it is uncertain if we will ever come back. We do not know what lays before us in these Gate Wars. We could die in our first match. I grab my wife's hand and squeeze.

  "Our life is different now," I say.

  "The world is different now," she replies.

  "Whatever comes, at least we are in this together," I look into my wife's eyes, truly grateful for a partner at this moment.

  "We are in this together," she hugs me and we share a brief, but meaningful kiss.

  Rachel is inviting you to a party. Would you like to join?

  I stare at Rachel for only a second before I accept, "How did you do that?"

  She smiles at me, "You aren't the only one who learned new things in the tutorial. During my challenge I had to invite a dummy to my party. If you are part of my party the energy it takes to heal you is reduced. I say we stay in a party as much as possible. Who knows when that little extra effort might be needed to save our lives?"

  I smile and nod, she was always the practical one between the two of us. Not a surprise, I am the idealist teacher and she is a real estate agent.

  Chapter 4

  We start to walk south heading toward Capitol Hill. It takes us about twenty minutes, but we reach 20th Street Skate Park, up the road from Coors Field. Oddly, this is the first time we see people. We live in a city with six hundred thousand people, and it is twenty minutes before I see people. A group of teenage skaters approach us.

  Five skaters all dressed in classic skater attire. Tight jeans, leather jackets and all of them are wearing hats of some sort. Two in baseball caps, one in a metal skull cap, one in a beanie, and the last one in a fedora of all things. The situation gets tense as they start to circle us on their skate boards. With the speed they are going and how they have spread out, they appear to be everywhere. This isn't good.

  The kid in the fedora gets off his skate board and addresses us with a cruel smile, "Greetings, you two seem prepared for this new world with your backpacks and hiking gear." He motions and everyone else gets off their skate boards. "You two look like you want to help us young children. Why don't you just drop your backpacks on the ground and we'll consider it a donation to us young poor children and we will let you leave unharmed?" His posse starts to chuckle like he had said something witty or clever.

  "Hey Anthony, I like the view from back here," the boy in a green beanie standing behind my wife says. "I think we may need a little TLC. Let’s see what this piece can do for us." My wife shoots him a death glare and flips him off. All he does is chuckle. This really isn't good; I start to charge my Energy Beam. My wife is practical, but she always hated chauvinists.